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There are a half-dozen universities in the United States with de facto Ivy League status. Though not actually members of the vaunted Ivy League, these schools are recognized as equal in stature to Dartmouth, Princeton, Yale, and other Ivies. without question, Stanford University is among this elite group.

Princeton University is arguably the most undergraduate-friendly member of the Ivy League. Other institutions at a similar level of prestige often promote their powerful professional schools in business, law, and/or medicine.

Every student at the "prestigious" Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art receives a full-tuition scholarship. The only catch is that students may only major in art, architecture, or engineering.

Harvard College's "academic reputation" precedes it. Home to a distinguished faculty and phenomenal world-class research facilities, Students lucky and talented enough to gain admission has the opportunity to pursue virtually any academic interest under the tutelage of some of the finest minds ever.

Yale "is truly one of America's great schools," writes one college counselor. It's an assertion that's hard to debate. As a major national research center, Yale attracts many of the world's great scholars. But unlike other research institutes, Yale also devotes a lot of attention to undergraduates.

"It's not at every college that you can learn how to fight, eat, and fly all on top of academics," but that's the United States Air Force Academy in a nutshell. Every student here receives a full scholarship that includes tuition, room and board, health care, and a monthly living allowance. Cadets also enjoy leadership training that "is second to none.

"West Point is unique in many ways: a military institution, a first-class university, and a national landmark all rolled into one," explains one cadet. "Our motto is ' duty, honor, country,' and sometimes duty looms much larger than the rest. Life is hard here, but its difficulty makes it fulfilling." The West Point approach--to cram as much activity into one day as humanly possible--is "very tough."

The U.S. Naval Academy offers a great education at a great price - it's free. Midshipmen have one of the "toughest academic programs around," yet the "outstanding" professors are "always willing and ready to help in every way possible." Classes are small and does full-time military and civilian faculty
teach members.

Brown’s famous “open curriculum,” which has no requirements outside of one’s major, Is “more rewarding for those students who know exactly what they wish to pursue academically.” Those lacking the “incredible maturity” it takes “to balance all your courses and choose the right ones” can languish if they’re used to rigid structure. The university, however, prides itself on “helping under grads achieve their utmost potential.”

Columbia University holds one major trump card in its battle against Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, and the other members of the Ivy League: location. Students agree that, among CU's many assets, New York City is tops.

I'm extremely suspicious of a ranking of academic selectivity that includes the academies. They are incredible schools, very honorable, no doubt - but they're military training schools first, and I guarantee they're not as selective as the other schools on that list.

The same largely goes for Cooper Union. I can think of a ton of colleges they should have put on there but didn't - how about Caltech and MIT?

It's nice Princeton's up there, but it looks like a dumb ranking system.

This is not specifically a ranking of "academic selectivity", but instead, overall school prestige. Moreover, there can be little doubt that graduates of the academies are highly respected by the public.
Selectivity is something that can be easily manipulated. Heavy marketing produces many applications and some schools are very good it (marketing). Prestige on the other hand, is something that is cultivated.

deter1, that's true, but they state in their opening line that one of the common characteristics of the schools is that they only admit the cream of the academic crop. That is, by definition, not true of the academies. Moreover, not having Caltech and MIT on such a ranking is outrageous. This ranking is a joke.

The above 11 schools are probably highly prestigious in the eyes of the average person. I doubt that a large cross section of the American public has even a faint idea concerning Brown or Cooper Union. Next in line might be UCLA, Cornell, Northwestern, Michigan, USC and a tie between Penn & Penn State.

^ Well I doubt most of the American public has heard of Georgetown's Foreign Service School or Penn's Wharton. And why would people know about Cornell and not Brown? Lastly, how could you even think about putting Penn and Penn State in the same category of prestige?

Let's not confuse popularity with academic prestige. Like selectivity, popularity can be manipulated as well. Again, heavy marketing, a top sports program, etc., etc. will do wonders in a popularity contest but will not carry the day in a discussion of academic prestige.

Ernie, not only does "Insiders College" disagree with you, but apparently the NATION'S ADULT POPULATION disagrees with you! In a PR survey this year of many thousands of parents, Princeton was chosen as the nation's #1 "Dream School".

Let's not confuse popularity, often driven by heavy marketing and hype, with prestige.

PS. Princeton prestige got yet another pop this morning with the announcemet that its economics professor, Paul Krugman, is being awarded the Nobel Prize.

Among ADULTS Princeton IS the nation's "dream school". That is a fact.

The "Dream School" ranking was developed by and is exclusive to PR. In the 2008 edition of that ranking, parents (the adult version of the ranking, as opposed to that which measured high schoolers) picked Princeton. Your personal opinion certainly counts, but when looking at the opinion of many thousands of adults, PR came to a different conclusion.

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